Since our son was born 9 weeks early we have been living that NICU life. It’s gruling, the stress from being in there can get to you. Cassius is currently 2 weeks old today, his gestation age would of been 33 weeks.

It’s not easy to go back to work and knowing your son is in the hosptial all day long hearing beeping noises and other babies cry all day. His first few days they had him on an oxygen tube and IV drip and a feeding tube through his mouth. Within that week he was off the oxygen and off the IV in about 5 days time. Which for being a preemie is amazing! Most babies have to be on it for a while but they doctors said since my wife had the steroid shots weeks before his birth that it helped develop his lungs a lot faster. Cassius was at a level 3 NICU level but they just downgraded his level to a 2 and basically means he doesn’t have to be watched as carefully.

All we are focused on now is getting the feedings right. He currently is on 41ml of breast milk/formula with a calcium fortifer. He hasn’t been taking it too easliy here and there sometimes. So what he does is he holds his breath and that lowers his heart rate. All the alarms go off and scares the crap out of mom and dad. So far he has been able to recover from those (Bradys as they call them) in about a few seconds without help from anyone rubbing him or moving him around which is good. They say it’s typical of preemies to have that happen to them as their body tries to get use to things so early. Our hospital is one of the only ones here in Vegas that feed the babies donor breast milk . It’s good and bad because with the donor milk he was losing weight but now that they stopped the donor milk and started giving him formula he has been gaining and is almost back to his birth weight, currently right now at 4lbs 5 ozs.

Our days are long but it’ll be worth it when we get to bring our son home which they said could be up until his due date. But really all he needs to do is be able to feed from a breast or bottle and he will be able to come home. Current schedule is get up at 5:20am get my stuff ready for the day, go to the gym at 6am, shower and leave by 715am, be at work by 8am, leave work at 430pm head to the hospital after work and stay there till about 8 or 9ish at night. I can tell you it has made this week go by really quick. The light at the end of the tunnel is almost there but it takes a lot of patience and support from family to keep us on track and not lose sight. Have fun everyone!